Alex Trelinski
VALENCIAN President, Ximo Puig, has poured cold water on suggestions that some form of domestic tourism could return in time for Easter.
Spain’s Tourist Minister, Reyes Maroto, had suggested that internal holidays could be back at a key time of the year, but the regional leader takes a different view.
Speaking to Radio Nacional today(February 2), Ximo Puig said: “Domestic tourism cannot resume at Easter because we are still in a very serious situation and we cannot give the wrong message of possible rule relaxations.”
The Valencian Community border was closed at the end of October and major regional cities have now introduced weekend perimeter closures.
All of the traditional Easter Semana Santa processions were cancelled last month in the region.
“Of course we want tourism to restart because it is a vital sector for us, but looking forward to an Easter resumption is not our current objective,” Puig added.
The region has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in Spain and though there are signs of a fall, Puig is determined not to make any premature changes to restrictions.
He continued; “The situation is very complicated and we cannot send any incorrect signal of relaxing the rules, because that would give the wrong impression of where we are at.”
“Any reopening should not be just in Spain, but co-ordinated with the rest of Europe, where so much of our traditional tourist market is based,” observed Puig.
